Taking a Sports Betting Approach to the Breeders’ Cup

October 1st, 2019 by Dan Tordjman

The Breeders’ Cup World Championships annually offer the kind of betting odds to horseplayers that are rarely found in the world of sports betting. (Eclipse Sportswire)

If you’ve bet on sports but have never fully taken the plunge into horse betting, the Breeders’ Cup World Championships are the perfect occasion to step onto that diving board and launch yourself head-first into some of the deepest wagering pools in the world. What makes the Breeders’ Cup – and betting on horse racing, in general – more attractive than betting on a game is that payouts on winning horses are consistently higher than winners of sports matches. Don’t believe it? Just take a look at the payouts for the winners of each of last year’s Breeders’ Cup races.

A Breeders' Cup bettor. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Of the 14 Breeders’ Cup races which were held at Churchill Downs in 2018 (the two-day betting bonanza will take place at Santa Anita Park this year on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 1-2), the winners of only two of the races paid less than even money. Think about that. It means that about 85% of the time, if you bet the winning horse in a Breeders’ Cup race last year, your return on investment was equal to or greater than (often much greater) than 1x your initial investment.

Still not getting the full picture? Consider that 10 of the 14 races returned at least 2x the amount wagered, and in four of the races winning bettors were rewarded with payouts 5x greater than the amount they bet. For people who bet on sports (like yours truly) we know that we’ll only cash in on odds like that if we’re lucky enough to catch the upset dog of the year. If we want payouts like these betting on sports, our only shot is with a multi-team parlay or Hail Mary prop bet.

So, let’s dive into the some of the moneyline odds and payouts in last year’s Breeders’ Cup races, highlighted by Shamrock Rose’s win in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint at +2590. What that means is that if you had $100 to win on Shamrock Rose, you would’ve enjoyed a payday of $2,690! But even $10 wagers returned handsome rewards throughout Breeders’ Cup, hence we’ll use those as a baseline bet as we go race-by-race below.

2018 Breeders’ Cup Winners, Moneyline Odds and Payouts

Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint

Winning Horse: Shamrock Rose

Moneyline Odds: +2590

$10 Bet Returned: $269

Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint

Winning Horse: Stormy Liberal

Moneyline Odds: +700

$10 Bet Returned: $80